Rowan yelled out in triumph as his feet hit the ground. Finally, he was on a beach outside London. He wasn’t sure where he was exactly but he knew he was only steps away from being welcomed back into the arms of his mentors and the sanctuary of his city.
Rowan looked along the coastline for his welcoming committee. Now that he was out of the boat they should know that he had made it back to London, by the signal from the chip in his heel.
The patrol boat was heading back to the Isle of Wight and now only he and Prozac stood on the beach waiting for the shield to lift. There was no turning back. Rowan had no regrets. He had waited for this day to come for a long time and he felt elated.
After a while, however, it became apparent that nobody knew they were there.
‘Where are they?’ Prozac asked Rowan. The tide was beginning to rise and there wasn’t much beach left to stand on. The wind turbines were too smooth to climb and the Isle of Wight was too far to swim back to.
Rowan looked along the coastline and wondered if Kayleb and the others were losing patience too, waiting for the shield to lift. He wondered if they had been caught yet – he hoped that they had been.
After several hours had passed, a police officer finally arrived on a hover scooter. He looked flustered and annoyed when he saw Rowan and Prozac. The seawater had just gone over their knees and waves were crashing into them; they were both cold and miserable. The policeman pulled a scanner out of his pocket, pointed it at Rowan and Prozac through the shield, typed a long code into the screen of the scanner and then beckoned to the two boys to wade out of the wilderness and step into London. Rowan frowned. This wasn’t what he had expected at all.
The policeman pulled out two extension platforms from the sides of his scooter and then pulled up handlebars from each of them, one for Rowan and one for Prozac.
As Rowan travelled beside the officer on the scooter, he stared miserably up at London’s hazy sky. Light cloud had covered up the sun. As the apartments whizzed by, Rowan searched around every corner for any sign of a welcoming committee or, at the very least, for his mentors, Sarah and Dale. They did not appear and Rowan’s heart felt heavier than before.
‘Not much of a homecoming,’ Rowan called out to Prozac. ‘I thought that we’d be welcomed back as heroes.’
Prozac nodded sadly. ‘Where do you think we’re going?’ he asked after a while.
‘You’re both off to the Decam Centre,’ chuckled the officer. ‘Heroes indeed! You shouldn’t have listened to the stories you were told. The only welcome you too are going to get is a scrub down and your memory wiped. You’ll be lucky if you’ll remember who you are!’
Rowan was furious. A rush of emotions coursed through his veins. He felt like he had been kicked in the teeth. He was dying to see Sarah and Dale and go back to normality but he wasn’t going to have anyone mess with his mind again. He had to find his own way back to his mentors, by himself. He couldn’t wait any longer; he would jump off the hover scooter and run for it, away from the coastline and into the streets of London. Rowan tried to leap off the scooter. His hands came away from the handlebars but his feet were stuck to the footplate. Rowan fought to keep his balance and grabbed hold of the handlebars again to steady himself.
‘What are you doing?’ shouted the police officer. ‘I wouldn’t move too much; you’ll unbalance the scooter.’
‘I can’t move! Can I?’ yelled Rowan angrily. ‘You’ve locked me on to this thing.’ Defiantly, Rowan shook his body to prove a point. The scooter lunged dangerously to the right
‘Stop that!’ shouted the police officer.
Rowan, seeing an opportunity to overturn the scooter, rocked himself forwards and backwards, trying his utmost to unbalance it. The scooter twisted and contorted until it finally went off the path and hit a rock. The scooter overturned and sent the officer flying over his handlebars and down a grassy bank towards the edge of the shield.
Rowan and Prozac lay in a heap on the path, their feet still stuck to their footplates.
‘What did you do that for?’ asked Prozac, rubbing his arm.
‘You don’t want to be turned into a vegetable, do you? You don’t want to forget everything you’ve been through?’
Prozac looked close to tears. ‘I don’t know what I want, do I? All I know is that I want this nightmare to end.’
‘Look, I’m not staying here. Let’s get this scooter up and get out of here. I can hear the officer coming back,’ said Rowan urgently. ‘I’m going back to my home but all in one piece. I’ll drop you off somewhere if you want.’
Reluctantly Prozac helped Rowan stand the scooter up with their feet still attached. Rowan leaned over and could just reach the main handlebars and the controls. The police officer was nearly at the top of the bank. Rowan twisted the right handlebar back and the scooter shot forward just as the officer stepped back onto the path. Rowan turned his head and saw the police officer yelling. He held his fist in the air and shook it angrily at them.
The scooter was awkward to guide and Rowan really needed to somehow release his feet to make steering it easier. He pressed each button on the dashboard, carefully avoiding the stop button.
After scrolling through a few screens Rowan found the controls for the extensions and unlocked his and Prozac’s feet. Rowan moved onto the main platform and felt like he was in control of his life again. He felt exhilarated. This was the best decision he had ever made. Nobody ever again would be able to tell him what to do. His destiny was in his own hands.
‘We’re going to be in so much trouble when we get home,’ said Prozac gloomily.
‘I think it’s time you got off the scooter,’ replied Rowan, slowing the scooter down. Prozac did not hesitate. He jumped off the scooter and started to walk back towards the police officer.
‘Loser!’ shouted Rowan as he sped off towards his apartment.